Two Broken Men
by Ophelia-Emelia Potter
Summary: Wasn't Shane right? In the end? What if...


**I do not claim to own any of The Walking Dead characters.**

 **This story involves The Walking Dead characters as well as my own OC characters.**

 **I also only write this in my spare time, writing the majority on my cellphone so, there may be serious time between stories, in which I apologize. I just want to share. Hope you enjoy!**

Chapter One: The Past Before

Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh walk out of a bar, taking the town drunk away in handcuffs for the umpteenth time. "I promise Rick, I'll go right home now," Fred, the town drunk, begged as Shane opened the back door to their patrol car. Rick smirked at him, "Sorry Fred, you had your chance. Sleep it off in the tank." Rick set him carefully in the backseat and shut the door. Shane sighed, shaking his head, looking up at the night sky. "Can we call it a night, Rick? Our shift ended an hour ago," Shane pleaded, leaning against the car. Rick nodded, "Yeah, yeah, let's drop off Fred and get home." Shane let out a sigh of relief has her rounded the car to the passenger side to get in. He looked behind the car across the street for a moment and locked eyes with a woman. It was too dark to really see who she was, in which he just slid into the car and slammed the door. Rick, already in the car, backed the car up and out of the parking lot, heading towards the police department.

The woman watched them turn out of the parking lot while lighting a cigarette. As she exhaled, Lori Grimes came out of the restaurant she had just a moment ago. "What time are you supposed to switch shifts with Rick and Shane?" Mabel turned to her, putting the hood on her leather jacket over her head with a smile. "I've got one more hour and then I would need to go." Lori laughed, "I can't believe you talked him into covering you for this long to be honest. Shane gets awfully testy when Rick keeps him too long after their shift ends." Mabel laughed with her and took another drag of her cigarette. "He owes me," Mabel said, looking down at her feet. Lori smiled at her, "He sure does…" she said, hugging Mabel around her shoulders. "I wish you would quit smoking those."

"I wish I would do. It would take something big to get me to quit."

"You just… quit smoking. What else do you need to do?" Lori laughed. Mabel smirked at her, ashing her cigarette into the wind. Lori smiled at her and headed for the door of the restaurant. "Well, come have another drink with all of us and then you can head out." Lori smiled at her again as she opened the door and went inside. Mabel watched her and took another drag of her cigarette and thought to herself, " _The quicker I can get out of here the better,_ " and then began a long walk to the police department, dragging her boots as she went. She never really liked "girls only" parties. She felt like Rose in Titanic, before she tries to kill herself. She saved that hour for a good walk, and she sure as hell needed it after this girly get-together.

Rick entered the front booking area of the police department with Frank in hand, begging for Rick to let him off this once continuously. Shane followed behind them, lightly laughing at Frank's whining to himself; now in a much better mood since he would be clocking out soon. "Who you got there, Rick?" Darla, the front guard asked as she saw him approach. "Frank Abbey. Needs to sleep for a while." Rick pulled Frank up to the desk with a kind and friendly grin to Darla. She smiled back, clicking the button to unlock the entrance to the jail. "See ya in the mornin' Frank!" she said, with a little wave as they passed by. Frank mumbled to himself in defeat as they passed through to the drunk tank.

"Now listen," Rick said as he sat Frank down on the bench of the drunk tank, "you're going to sleep this off until tomorrow morning when I come in. When you are released, you are immediately apologizing to Mark and Ben and you sure as hell are paying back your tab and your damages to the bar. Am I clear?" Frank nodded, looking down at the floor. "I'm gonna keep my eye on you," Shane said, standing behind Rick. "I best not find you in the same place neither. You stay away from _Tubby's_ , you got me?" Frank nodded again. Rick and Shane left the room and locked the door.

The entrance door lock beeped loudly as Darla let someone else in. Mabel passed through the door, eyes on the floor, heading towards the back still in her civilian clothes and slightly panting after her very long walk to the police station. "Hey Mabel," Rick said in a chipper tone with a hint of a sarcastic "nice to see you" greeting. Mabel looked up at him, brushing her hair out of her face. "Why Rick! I didn't know you would be here. I thought you and Shane should have been gone two hours ago?"

"Thank you, Mabel," Shane said, putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head at Rick playfully. Mabel smiled at them as she passed, "Ya'll have a good night. See you tomorrow." As she passed the drunk tank, she glanced in at Frank, who looked the sorriest she had seen him in a long time. A weight pressed on her chest for a moment before she resumed looking at the floor as she headed for the locker rooms to get changed.

Shane watched Mabel walk down the hall until she disappeared. "She don't like to talk much, huh?" Shane asked, as he and Rick began to follow her to get changed themselves. "Not really," Rick responded, "not even Lori can really crack her. She's just nervous, being new and all." Shane shook his head, "Sad…" he mumbled as they entered the back men's locker room. Rick glanced at Shane before stopping in front of his locker. He watched Shane walk to his locker before grinning to himself. Rick began singing softly, "Shane and—"

"Don't you even!" Shane interrupted, pointing at Rick with risen eyebrows. Rick laughed to himself and began getting changed back into his regular clothes.

Mabel threw her bag into her locker and slammed it shut. She adjusted her shirt in the long vertical mirror on the wall before setting her foot on the bench to tie her boots. She could hear voices in the locker room next door, smiling because she knew it was Rick and Shane. Usually, they were pretty amusing when they were swapping shifts with her so, she was guilty of eavesdropping now and again. Not today though, as she quickly strapped on her holster and grabbed her jacket to throw on before she could have even heard Shane object loudly to Rick's assumptions.

It was a strangely cold night that night—too cold for that time of year in Georgia. Not only that, it was an insanely busy night. By the time Mabel got back, she could hear grumpy Shane and chipper Rick in the locker room changing back into their clothes to start a new day. Mabel was exhausted and so sore, just changing back into her normal clothes was a chore. As she exited, Rick and Shane exited the men's locker room greeting her with smiles. She wearily smiled back at them and b-lined for the exit to go home. "Hold on there, Deputy Warren.". Mabel froze at the sound of Rick's voice, turning slowly around while maintaining eye contact with the ground. "Lori said you disappeared from the bachelorette party last night. Said, you just ditched them without sayin' goodbye?" Shane walked past them, putting on his sunglasses and heading for the patrol car. Mabel watched him leave before responding with, "I don't really like parties. I'd rather shoot myself." Rick chuckled, "I figured that. You were noticed, however. So, the polite thing to do is tell the women that. At least Lori... Before you just up and leave. People get worried about people they care about." Rick slid his sunglasses on, patted Mabel on the shoulder and walked out to meet Shane at the car. Mabel watched him leave and began to feel slightly bad for just leaving. Then she thought to herself, " _Maybe they'll finally take the hint..._ " before walking out of the police station to her beat up black Ford Thunderbird and taking off back to her house.

Rick and Shane both enjoyed some lunch as they sat, scanning cars driving by on the highway. "I didn't even suspect that you had any attraction to Mabel. You were such an asshole to her when she first started," Rick laughed. "Not to mention, she isn't blonde and she doesn't have big... you know," Rick continued, elbowing Shane in the arm playfully and motioning the shape of breasts on his own chest. Shane kicked him back, shaking his head and turning red. "I don't even like her, man," he insisted, looking out the window as he took a bite of his sandwich. Before Rick could protest, a call came over the radio. " _We've got a stolen vehicle, a black 1989 Ford Bronco, two suspects, heading towards Magnolia and Oakland, high pursuit, plates Adam, Michael, Seven, Four, Three, Eight, Frank, all units please respond._ " Rick looked at Shane and they both acknowledged to each other they were the closest unit without a word.

They peeled out onto the empty street and made an immediate exit to loop back to the highway. Shane grabbed the radio and responded with their location and that they were heading there now to place spike strips. As they turned onto Orchard Highway with another patrol car passing the stopped traffic, Rick got a pain in his chest. A pain that always led him to believe something bad was about to happen. Quickly, Shane and Rick place the spike strips, backed up, and prepared with the other team and their patrol car to take the chase head on. Rick's heart pounded in his ears as he told another deputy to take his own safety off. He could hear the distant rumbles of the car coming towards them. They all watched as the car came over the hill and hit the spikes. They all watched as the car served around and finally turning over a few times before sliding to a stop in the median.

 **The end… for now. It'll pick up, I promise. I just need to establish OC characters. Let me know what you think.**


End file.
